There are plenty of things started on WoW - don't know about tabletop D&D - and plenty of threads here on people hooking up at the gym.

Anyplace can be an opportunity for cheating. Facebook and MySpace and that kind of stuff just makes it extra easy, but the real problem is and always will be lack of boundaries and lack of respect for relationships - your own or anyone else's.

Amen to that Mulan!

Anytime two people are wrapped in the security of the internet, it is easy to open up, share intimacies, etc. before you know it, people are sharing their deepest secrets, comforting each other, complimenting each other...without boundaries, this can get emotional and out of hand quickly. When I first joined MB years ago, the PM feature wasn't turned off....now it is. Even the people at MB know you have to draw lines. So yes, one does have to be careful on the internet.

<waves at Mark>

Perfect length post buddy.

I'm pretty sure Sapph's affair was over WoW. Having played WoW, I can say I've SEEN a couple affairs happen over it. It DOES happen. I saw one happen when the married couple was PLAYING NEXT TO EACH OTHER most evenings. It happens.

Blaming Facebook, Myspace or any social networking is like blaming the BS for the affair.

Sure, if the BS was meeting needs and affair proofing the marriage, the affair probably may not have happened. But often the BS wasn't getting their needs met either. Boundaries determine if affairs happen.

Plenty of people play WoW with good boundaries. Plenty of people use Facebook with good boundaries. Plenty of people use gyms, work, myspace, chatrooms, forums, blogs, church with good boundaries.

Adulterers DON'T. THAT is the difference, not the mechanism, software or environment. The PERSON.

Very true. I just wish the sites wouldn't promote using them to connect with 'former lovers' like Mylife does. For someone who's weak, that's all it takes to get them started. They think it will be fun and innocent, but it's a slippery slope.

I gotta say, any married person who thinks it would be fun and innocent to make contact with a former lover has some serious brain problems.

And Amen to that too!

I used to play POGO games alot before I got involved with FB games. POGO has a chat feature where players can chat during the games. I watched lots of drama happen in Chat. I remember one in particular where this gal and a guy were fast becoming an item, that is, until the guys wife made an appearance and spilled the beans to everyone there that her husband was married.

I can even think back to when AOL first came out and everyone was chatting on there. Lots of private chat invites, it was crazy.

Yeah, we got AOL when DD14 was a baby. I remember being very troubled by DH's chats and choice of people to chat with. He even gave someone our number!! I mean, these people could be anybody.

Caution and boundaries are essential on the internet.

Surprise, surprise. WW just couldn't contain herself and checked out the MyLife site. Didn't get too far, though. I think it may be a pay site. I checked it out myself, but the site said my email address was already registered . . . .???? so I didn't get too far either.

Curiosity did what to the cat?

I noticed a new commercial yesterday...a woman at an office musing about who might have searched for her. She said:

"Maybe an old client. I wonder if I can get them back."

I wonder if people complained about the married woman on the couch wondering about an old boyfriend in the other commercial.

Sorry, I don't agree that social networking sites DON'T cause affairs, because without them a lot of people would have a harder time having affairs and would choose not to put in the extra effort. These websites have made it ridiculously easy, and now don't even require leaving the house/getting dressed/etc etc.

When I got married my husband was on facebook, myyearbook, and myspace (this one used most). All he kept in contact with were the women he had been sleeping with (or was sleeping with) up until right before we got married. I had to fight with him for almost 8 months and a separation in which he DID cheat on me (I believe several times, he claims only once) to get him to stop using these all together. He claimed for months and months and still to this day refuses to acknowledge that he was flirting. UM hello, he was talking to one woman about their sexual encounters (pre-me). Is that appropriate and telling another woman how much he liked her, how cool she was, and how they were best friends .. if that's not flirting then I don't know what is. Oh but that's not his kind of flirting, sorry she was still taking her top off and get plastered and kissing him when over at my house. He would constantly look at his exes pictures, and friends of our roommates (male) and say how HOT and PRETTY and SEXY they were.

He considers it a SACRIFICE to have to have given up myspace .. I consider it ESSENTIAL and yes MANDATORY if he wants to continue the relationship because he can't give himself limits.

I think social networking sites are A DEFINITE cause to blame as well as a spouse with no morals/limits/boundaries because they just make it TOO easy.

Tara, why did you marry a man like this?

Is this why you hit him sometimes?

Is he still cheating and flirting?

.

Sylar, I have to disagree. These are simply opportunities. If someone takes a handgun and shoots another individual, I don't blame the handgun; I blame the individual. If someone takes a knife and robs a person, I don't blame the knife; I blame the person.

If a person has an affair at the workplace, I don't blame the workplace; I blame the person.

It's the same with social networking. The person either had the boundaries not to have an affair or they didn't. They would've had that affair with or without facebook or myspace. Plenty of people are on those sites that don't have affairs.